To address the nearly 9,000 women-related crimes in Haryana, the state has launched its first ever all-women police station in Gurgaon. While there will still be some male support, all key operational decisions will be entirely taken by a rank-and-file women police officials.
Much castigated for its low sex ratio, Haryana has been attempting an image makeover of late and this is the state's latest attempt at appearing more women-friendly.
A two-storey building in Gurgaon's Sector 51 — until now the office of the traffic police — is being converted into a "one-stop shop" police station for women, according to Gurgaon police commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk.
Haryana, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, has in fact recorded 8,974 cases of crimes against women, including 3,501 cases of dowry harassment, 1,174 rapes cases and 230 cases gang rapes, according to a report in BBC.
This is the first of the 21 all-women police stations across the districts of Haryana announced by the government. With the state having among the worst gender ratios in India Haryana seems to be trying to improve the women-friendliness in the state with an all-women police station in the the district.
Each women police station would have at least 38 police personnel besides a support staff of 8-10 male police officials to conduct raids, apprehend the accused and other related duties, said Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) YP Singhal told the media according to NDTV
Inspector Umesh Bala, who has been selected to head Haryana's first all-women police station, told BBC, that most complaints in the area were about women being stalked or sexually harassed. "The accused men often tell me 'she was my friend,' said Bala, "And I tell them 'but now she is not, so lay off. She is not your personal property'."
According to a recent report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, women make up only 6.11 percent of India's 2.3 million police force, reported BBC.
India has met with success earlier with all-women police stations in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
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